The present invention relates generally to wallets worn attached to the body or clothing, and more specifically to a wallet including a reconfigurable elastic strap as the means for attachment.
The most common type of wallet has one or more compartments and is made to be carried in a pocket. If the wallet's owner is wearing clothing without pockets, this type of wallet becomes very impractical. There are also purses and bags which have one or more straps to be held in a hand or over an arm, but these limit the ability of the limb engaged with the purse or bag to perform other functions. When realized as a purse, this type of carrier also tends to be relatively large and heavy. There are also wallets or purses designed to be held solely on the hand, rather than on the arm or wrist. This style of wallet or purse is generally very specialized in form and of limited utility.
A variant on the standard wallet or purse is the “safety purse”, which employs a closely fitting loop of a strap around the arm to prevent the possible dropping or loss of a wallet, purse or pocket book held in the hand. This specialized type of strap ends up limiting the utility of the wallet or purse, in addition to the fact that a hand must be dedicated to holding it.
Another type of wallet is the arm or leg wallet which is a holder for small items, generally formed to encircle a limb and secured with a closure, which may include elastic and may also include a discrete strap. This style of wallet is often used in connection with casual athletic or sports activities, and is limited in wearability to the limb attachment for which it was designed.
There are also purses, shoulder bags, backpacks and other article carriers with variable-length straps, where the variable-length capability is realized using folded or partially recessed lengths of strap. These generally require multiple fasteners or some recessed or semi-recessed additional elastic to control the strap length, movement and tension, and as such add complexity, weight and expense.
One example of a wallet with an adjustable strap is taught by U.S. Pat. No. 3,354,925 filed Nov. 27, 1964 entitled LADY'S PURSE which discloses a lady's purse that includes a handle strap “. . . which is adjustable so that the length thereof may be increased to accommodate a lady's hand which may be slipped thereinto, and which strap may otherwise be moved to a centered position for normal use.” The '925 patent teaches a pair of straps each having an end loop enclosing the other strap and thus forming a sliding joint. The straps are also permanently attached to the wallet at the end of the strap opposite the end loop, and optionally by a fastener in the center of the two straps. While this design permits some flexibility on the hand holding position for the purse, it does not permit either secure attachment to a limb or article of clothing, or to be hung from the strap as a conventional purse.
Another example of a purse or wallet with a flexible strap is taught by British Patent No. GB 363,104 filed Nov. 6, 1930 entitled IMPROVEMENTS IN ATTACHING PURSES, CASES OR HOLDERS TO THE PERSON discloses a “purse, case or holder” that may be secured to the hand with a continuous loop of non-elastic cord threaded through multiple pairs of eyelets in a manner that allows variable means for securing. This loop and eyelet arrangement does allow a variety of holding and securing methods to be used, but the lack of elasticity requires the loop to be twisted multiple times to take up slack if the purse is to be held close to the limb. Further, a shaped cutout in the purse and a large number of eyelets are required for this purse to work properly.
Still another example of a wallet with a flexible strap is taught by U.S. Pat. No. 1,735,655 filed Jul. 26, 1928 entitled FINGER AND BACK STRAP FOR HAND BAGS, which discloses a hand bag with a strap capable of being reconfigured for multiple styles of holding around a limb by being divided into two loops. This strap is not elastic and rather than passing through any interior portion of the bag, or any grommets or other openings in the bag itself, passes through a “loop member” attached to the outside of the bag. This strap works essentially in two shapes only, a conventional strap-type handle and a hand-strap that permits the strap to hold the bag to the palm of the hand. More flexibility in the use of this strap is prevented by the non-elastic “preferably leather” nature of the strap, and by the width of the strap.
Yet another example of a wallet with a flexible strap is taught by U.S. Pat. No. 1,438,145 filed Jul. 18, 1921 entitled COMBINED CHANGE PURSE AND MEMORANDUM BOOK which discloses a combined change purse and memorandum book which uses an elastic strap folded double and a stitched or otherwise bonded middle portion to create a loop suitable for either suspending the wallet from a limb or article of clothing or to secure the wallet to a limb when the elastic is used as a surrounding band. The elastic is permanently attached to the wallet at the end opposite the loop and thus lacks any ability to vary the loop proportions for optimizing different kinds of attachment.
A standard type of wrist or ankle worn wallet or purse is taught by U.S. Pat. No. 6,227,424 filed Feb. 9, 2000 entitled SECURITY PURSE, which attaches a small purse to a wrist with a buckled strap. While this purse could be attached to an ankle or conceivably to an article of clothing with the buckled strap, it still is essentially a very limiting mode of attachment.
Another example of a standard type of wrist or ankle worn wallet is taught by Patent Application Publication No. US2004/0031830 filed Aug. 16, 2002 entitled Pocket Band wherein a small pocket-type purse is held onto a limb with an adjustable elastic strap. While this style of strap is well suited for attaching an article to a limb, it is not conveniently used for any other method of carrying the purse.
A significant improvement over the existing art is a wallet with an elastic multi-part strap allowing the wallet to be worn in multiple ways, including hung from the arm, attached securely to an arm or leg, attached to the back or palm of a hand, and attached to a belt or an article of clothing.